Tag Archives: vending machine

Technological advances in vending machines have enabled consumers to purchase vended products using apps, debit and credit cards. We have also seen other advances inside the vending machines. We’ve all made trips to the vending machine to purchase a soda and chips only to have our selection fail to vend after we swipe our credit card. Frustrated, we think the machine charged our card so we make a call to the number on the machine looking for a refund. Or worse, someone shakes the machine in hopes of getting the product to drop, which can cause a lot of damage to the machine. But did you know up-to-date vending machines include a guaranteed vend delivery system?

Each vending machine has an infrared light sensor at the bottom of the machine. Each snack or drink passes through this infrared light as it is dispensed. If the snack or drink doesn’t break the beam of light, it will give the customer credit back to make another selection. This feature makes the customer experience more reliable and minimizes the need to call customer service or request a refund. Not sure if your machine has a guaranteed vend delivery system? Many machines will have a sticker indicating the presence of one; you may also see a message appear after selecting your product. If the machines is equipped with a guaranteed vend delivery system, a message typically pops up encouraging the consumer to make another selection or dispense a refund. Guaranteed vend delivery systems can take care of a problem before it starts. Who needs a frustrated customer?

It’s National Cookie Day and that means it’s the perfect excuse to visit Laura Numeroff’s classic, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Take a trip through the vending machine to see all the other things a mouse will need after his cookie!

As you know, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll ask you for some milk and then a straw. While in this case, the mouse will ask you to go to the Keurig coffee vending machine to grab a hot chocolate k-cup to wash down the cookie crumbs then he’ll need a napkin to wipe away all the crumbs. Then he’ll need to get some gum from the vending machine. After chewing the gum for a bit, he’ll realize that he’s hungry and he’ll need a snack. He’ll ask for some potato chips but after he opens the bag, he’ll ask you for some chocolate since he loves the sweet and salty combination. After the snack, he’ll get very full so he’ll probably ask for a blanket to rest, but before he can go to sleep, he’ll need a cold bottle of water.

When the mouse wakes up, he’ll realize that he’s full from all the food so he’ll probably ask you to take him on a walk. After the walk, he will be all sweaty, so he will ask you for a bath, but he’ll need some soap. He’ll ask for extra bubbles but make a mess so he’ll ask for a towel to clean it up. He will stand back and realize that the floor needs to be sweeped so he’ll as for a broom. Then he’ll clean the whole house, but when he gets to the kitchen he bumps into the jar of cookies. The cookies come crashing down. He’ll have to eat the cookies quick so they don’t go to waster. And chances are if you give him another cookie, he’ll ask to go back to the vending machine for another hot chocolate and another cookie to go with it!

Enjoy National Cookie Day for yourself and see where your adventure takes you! What type of cookie will you have to celebrate National Cookie Day?

From candy bars to fresh apple slices, the options we get at vending machines today are as diversified as ever before. With the increasing trends in health and wellness among individuals nowadays, vendors are beginning to place healthier snack options in their machines. An article in the Des Moines Register the other day caught our eye. It was an interview with Janette Batts, a registered dietitian and license dietitian nutritionist with UnityPoint Health – Des Moines as she shared her tips on how to make healthier choices at a vending machine. We absolutely loved her notes and what she had to say about a lot of our favorite snacks, so we decided to put together a short list of tips to making these healthier choices.

Here are a few tips:

Look out for snacks that have already been labelled as the “Healthier Choice”

Make use of vending machines that provide you with nutritional information of the snacks they carry

Stay away from foods with high trans-fats, MSG and added sugar

Learn the names for different forms of sugar such as fructose, molasses, malt, sucrose

Ingredients that you can’t pronounce can usually be avoided

Use a Food App to get educated on the foods you consume – like MyFitnessPal

Candy bars are great but everything needs to be done in moderation

If you like snacking frequently, then plan for lighter meals and then have wholesome snacks in between

Here are also Janette’s list of Best & Worse snacks from Vending Machines and some other ideas for snacks to pack from home: